MMO-Champion on Hardware

The setups do look pretty good. The only things you really need to look at are CPU. Motherboard, RAM, and Graphics. Everything else is changeable.

I'm surprised there are no nVidia graphics cards in the mix there though. I run a GTX 470 and can get about 145fps in normal areas and 75-80fps in main cities.

For the high end system, if you're going to spend that much then definitely go with an OCZ Vertex 2 drive, will massively increase game load and area load times (when going into an instance or teleporting somewhere). For the high end i'd also grab at least 8gb of ram, WoW can use a LOT of ram and since it's so cheap these days why not.

I am waiting for this to be in stock and then i'll be grabbing it to finish off my high end pc:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227591
 
Got a couple of questions. Does it actually do any good to have more than 60 fps if the monitor is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate? Is it better to limit the fps to the refresh rate in the WoW settings by enabling the "vertical sync" or is it better to have it disabled?
 
It might have changed since you looked Reets but there is a GTX 460 which is nvidia. John, you can disable vsync which will unlock the refresh rate and the gpu's ability to spit out frames. I have always left vsync off (past 6 years). I recall only one game where I saw "ripping" caused by vsync being off (FarCry). Disable it, you'll notice if there are problems.
 
The 470 is pretty much a waste of money when you throw in the 460. About the only "bad" thing about the 460 is the inability to Tri-Sli it... With the 580 displacing the 480 (and the 580 being better in every which way over the 480) I would only recommend a 460 if you're on a budget or a 580 if you can afford the 500 or so USD for it. Just be aware that you'll need two nVidia cards at the minimum if you want to do triple-monitor set up and if you don't want your frame rates in the sub-30 region if you are going 3D, you'll want to Tri-Sli it (which throws out the 460 as the low budget killer option)...

Oh, and I take major exception to any Razer product. I've had nothing but trouble with the four mice and two keyboards that were made by Razer. Logitech, on the other hand... :)
 
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(Redeemed invasion, Redeemed invasion!)

I did a ton of research prior to speccing out an Alienware M17X, specifically built for WoW. Research said that:

1) While WoW has been tweaked over the years to allow some multi-core, multi-thread use, the program is basically one giant thread, one minor thread, and then a bunch if minuscule threads. So a fast clock-speed, low-core processor gets better results than a quad core. Desktop performance quad cores tend to deliver both so it's not really a tradeoff, but mobile quad cores tend to be slower, so not a good WoW choice. Tools like hyperthreading and turbo-boost aren't ideal for WoW, although if you hard-set the turboboost in then that is equivalent to the faster clock speed. Although it's effectively turning a quad-core into a dual-core machine. WoW is highly processor dependent, low FPS in places like Dalaran is more likely to be processor driven then graphics card drive.
2) Having at least 2GB of memory helps WoW, but havign a lot more than 2GB doesn't change that much
3) Hard drive speed matters a lot. I can vouch for the power of the SSD. I recently moved to an Intel SSD and, especially since the 4.0.3a, zone-in times are crazy-fast ... a few seconds at most.
4) Graphics cards matter, but not as much as most games. If you have any sort of vaguely modern card, it can handle high settings.
5) System requirements for across the board LOW settings for WoW would probably work on a lawnmore. But across the board EXTREME settings are relatively demanding.

Anyhow, I'm sure not everything I've said above is without controversy, but it's what I came up with. I can definitely say that the SSD rocks.

Specifically on the mouse topic ... it's an amusing topic. I think it's funny that thier "lowest end" system has a $35 mouse and the "highest end" has a $40 mouse. They shoulda at least recommended a Naga or something. I am a fan of Razer mice ... I love the texture and they fit my hand right. But mice are extremely personal/hand dependent. I'm surprised that high-end mice aren't made in small/medium/large sizes. Recommending a specific mouse in a system build is kinda giggle-worthy.
 
My experience is a bit different but I appreciate your contributions. I use dual monitor as I am running other programs so multi core and high speed are beneficial for me which also addresses the RAM usage. I have tracked RAM usage and it is not untypical for WoW to grow over a gigabyte of RAM. As mentioned, I also run lots of programs while I play so my 6 GB is used for the most part, often using 4.5 of physical with of it in system cache.

I would totally agree with the HD and the use of a SDD for WoW, my box is overloaded with goodies (i7 940, 6GB SLI blah blah) but WoW needs fast drives. I bought my wife a SSD last year on a box an 1/8th of mine but she could beat me everytime loading into instances. Keep in mind though that not all SSD are created equals. Intel has a solid reputation but there are others to consider as well (http://ssd-reviews.com).

I have two comments regarding graphics cards, if you run dual monitor and SLI, you can only run into one of two modes, multi gpu but single monitor OR multi display. They do not support dual sli on dual monitors. I am not convinced ATI does either. The other comment I would make is if you run an LCD monitor, run it at the native resolution, which means if you have a 19" or bigger, you better be running a medium to high end card to run at max eye candy @ the native LCD resolution.
 
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